Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Pause. Start. Pause. Start.

A state senator from Brooklyn said on Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation that would ban people from using an MP3 player, cell phone, Blackberry or any other electronic device while crossing the street in New York City and Buffalo.

Let's ignore the "and Buffalo" for a minute. Do you know how many times I've almost been hit by a car careening around a corner into a crosswalk, only to see the driver with one hand on the wheel and one on his or her cell phone? Isn't that already illegal? Why isn't anyone cracking down on the drivers? They are much more dangerous than the pedestrians around them. And, seriously, does this mean you'd be expected to hit "pause" on your iPod every time you came to an intersection? That's crazy.

Okay, so why Buffalo? Is there something I don't know about Albany or Syracuse or Ithaca or Poughkeepsie that makes their pedestrians immune to accidents? Do they teleport across the street in those cities?